I like #326

 Not much is happening on the crafty front lately, almost everything is focused on work and construction and mud.  However, there's good stuff anyway.

Last Thursday I went to the annual College of Medicine Alumni Association Gala, its the one big fancy work event each year.  This year they let us take home the centerpieces so it was exciting to have fun flowers in the wet cold snowy rainy winter!

On Saturday they demoed the backyard for the new concrete for the porch.  Unfortunately it's been really wet and rainy so we had a giant giant mud pit for a few days straight out the backdoor.  I was constantly sweeping, the bed and sofa were full of dirt, and it was just a giant mess.  I had to put on muck boots to get into the studio.  But then it dried up enough to pour the concrete and by yesterday evening the dogs were allowed on it, so now even though there's still tons of mud at least the dogs don't go straight from it into the house.  I spent two hours cleaning floors last night and it is (at least temporarily) so much better.  

I'm very excited about the concrete, it's nice and bigger than my old porch footprint.  And I learned I can move my fence, so I'm not even sad anymore about losing garden space.  

While they were tearing up the old concrete on Saturday Blue and Spooky and I went out for a nice hike.  It was good to get outside and not be at the hourse during the noisiest of the demo, this whole process has been super stressful for the dogs anyway.

I did do one small sewing project this weekend, I made my annual donation quilt for the SAQA spotlight auction.  It's inspired by a kelp forest.  The quilts are very small, 6x8 matted down to 4.5 x 6.5.  Because the quilts are matted, 3/4" all the way around doesn't show, and they recommend you use a flat finishing (i.e. not a bulky binding or facing. Mine has some dimensional elements on it so I was careful to make sure those didn't go into the area where it would be matted.  This is the quilt, it looks kind of funny as is, but once matted it will look more like the second picture below.

And I'm still having fun putting together outfits with lots of handknits.  In the summer when it's hot I wear the same basic stuff, but in the winter it's fun to dig stuff out of my closet and do things a little more put together. Lots of times I even start with the shawl and handknit socks and then do the outfit.

For Valentine's Day!

This was today's, ignore the dumb face.

I hope thereare nice things in your life this week!  Click over to LeeAnna's for more!

I Like #325

 Welcome to another week of things to like.  They started demo in the backyard this week which is exciting and a bit messy.  They got the old porch torn down and garden fence removed, and sadly two of my garden beds disassembled.  We're playing it by ear with the weather regarding the next steps which are demoing out the old concrete and pouring the new.

I made curtains this weekend for two doorless closets in my small bedroom.  I used this rough weave raw silk that Georgia gave me.  To spruce it up a little I decided to include some trim from my stash.  The one room has pale brown and blue sheers, and I was excited to have just enough of this blue and white trim for an accent.  The other room has a roman shade made out of the fabric in the top of the second picture.  I auditioned several different ribbons/trims, and decided to go for the gold and pink combo.

I also dyed a bunch of sort of medium weight silk that has an interesting Jacquard-type weave.  I used Dharma's procion dyes and an acid method.  It dulled the sheen a bit but the color came out perfect.  It's to make curtains for my new purple bedroom.

I had only one outfit selfie this week, but the bright colors were fun.

And some pups to brighten your day!

Click over to LeeAnna's for more things to like.

I Like #324

 Welcome to February!  After missing a couple of weeks (at this point I don't even remember why), I'm back with things to like.  

I've had lots of construction happening at my house the last several weeks, and while it's not done, it's at the stage where things are looking so much better. I've been able to start hanging back up are (which is great since it means getting it off the floor), and was able to clean up my studio enough to unload some rolls of fabric from the car.  

Currently I'm really really loving the dark purple  paint I picked for my bedroom.  It's hard to photograph, but it feels so cozy and bold in person.

During the construction, the contractor found three of Spooky's missing balls, he's been thrilled to have them back.

As part of moving things back in, I gave all my plants a bath last Sunday when it was warm.  I love my plants, but I did destash about 8 to friends and colleagues. I had lots of duplicates and really need to recapture some space.  The ones I gave away were mostly small euphorbia, aloe, and pothos.  

Not much blooming right now except my amaryllis which I rescued as a bulb from a post-Christmas clearance bin at walmart.

The pups are doing ok, they got in another small fight last night, triggered by dog chaos in a neighbors yard.  No severe injuries, but Blue's ear was injured again.  They were fine by this morning, cuddled up on the bed together as normal.

After some extremely cold weeks, and then a couple weeks of solid gray rain, it's finally been nice this week.  I've been enjoying pairing up my hand knits shawls with fun outfits and handknit socks.  Sorry about the backgrounds, it's either the work bathroom or the garage.

I did get a chance to blog about a couple of new quilts from late last year this week, click here and here to see them!

Hope you all are finding some things to like!  Click over to LeeAnna's for more!